Reader query fixes Niskayuna intersection

Q: I work in Schenectady and live in Clifton Park. The intersection at Providence Avenue and Balltown Road is obnoxious to deal with every evening going home because heading south on Providence and trying to turn left (east) onto Balltown is almost impossible.

Sometimes, despite the green arrow, only one car gets through or sometimes none because drivers heading east on Balltown run the yellow and red lights and block the intersection. The green light for the Providence Avenue travelers is so short that we are completely blocked from moving. It takes as much as half an hour to negotiate that intersection from that direction, with only one car at a time getting through.

I have seen cops at the intersection before, and when I do the traffic flows a little better. Could the Providence Avenue left green arrow be made about 30 seconds longer to allow for more cars to get through once the Balltown Road bullies have moved along?

— Barbara R. Tomeck, Clifton Park

A: “In response to this inquiry, we initiated a study of the traffic signal at the Route 146/River Road/Providence Avenue intersection,” state Department of Transportation spokesman Peter Van Keuren said. “An engineer observed the flow of traffic through the intersection during the afternoon peak travel time and witnessed the delays described by the writer.”

Steps were taken the state hopes says should improve traffic flow.
“The signal was adjusted to provide additional time to the left-turn arrow,” Van Keuren said. “In addition, we investigated the operations of the two signals on Route 146 north of this intersection on each side of the Rexford Bridge. The signal at the 146/Riverview Road intersection is working properly. However, a malfunctioning vehicle detector was discovered on the Williams Road approach to the 146/Aqueduct/Williams signal. This malfunctioning detector would erroneously detect a vehicle on the Williams Road approach every cycle of the signal, even if there were no vehicles on this approach.”

Repairs were made, he said, and the signal is now working properly. Van Keuren thanked you for pointing out this problem.

If you encounter any more trouble, you know where to find us.

Tim O'Brien

2 Responses

I make the same commute each afternoon and experience the grid-lock described when making this left hand turn, hope these adjustments help. I’ve also observed that this problem appears to be seasonal, with afternoon traffic at its worst in the spring. At this time of year, more cars appear to be traveling north merging east onto Balltown Road, from the KAPL and GE campuses. Does anyone know if there is shift adjustments or increases in work force during the spring and early summer?
Also, what’s the latest on revisions to the Rexford bridge? This was talked about a few years ago, but haven’t heard much lately.

A family member of mine works at KAPL. He says that at KAPL depending on your start time, the general work force begins to leave work for the day at 230 pm. It picks up around 330 and then hits its peak between 4 and 5. KAPL (as far as he knows and he’s been there over 10 years) does not change its workforce as a seasonal thing, but perhaps some employees shift their hours so that they get out a little earlier. Also if you hit the traffic at the right time, you have to contend with traffic backups due to school letting out also.